


Baby's First Bomb

by Trista_zevkia



Series: Precious Memories [2]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 03:00:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8384677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trista_zevkia/pseuds/Trista_zevkia
Summary: Black Bat drags Robin from his post. He is not amused.





	

There wasn’t much of blast, in fact it would have gone unnoticed if the lights and security cameras hadn’t blinked out in a neat little circle. After two tries to restart his comm. Damian gave a snort.

“Really, Father, I expected you to shield your equipment from EMP blasts.” 

Even as he said it, Damian knew he could say it to Father’s face without repercussions, at least not the sort he’d learned to expect from Grandfather. Father would put him to studying something, or maybe the grunt work of shielding the cowl comms from EMPs. Grandfather wouldn’t beat him or anything so uncivilized, but he’d be given extra training that resulted in bruises, but that wasn’t abuse. Even if when he talked about it Father’s eyes had narrowed in anger so much Damian wondered how he was able to see. 

It certainly wasn’t Damian’s fault that Father spoiled his brothers. Even now, Father had taken Jason inside the building to find out what this new group wanted with the parts they’d stolen. Damian had been stuck outside, to take down anyone who tried to flee out the door across the street from him. Without weapons, he was a better fighter than Jason and Tim. Dick only offered him a challenge because Dick was so much taller and maintained a limberness that gave him an edge. But Dick was in Bludhaven, and Tim was tracking cyber thieves. The distance fighter, Jason and his guns, should have been out here picking off runners, but his brothers were all spoiled and got to do whatever they wanted. 

The EMP had gone off after the fighting started, and Damian would bet Jason had shot the bomb. It had been small, as these things went, as two blocks away was still lit up with electricity. Anyone running in the dark here would be a bad guy, in this very containable situation, so Damian wouldn’t get any chance to prove himself. Damian was the one who almost beat Father in a fight, yet he was stuck out here. He had landed a nerve strike on Father, and yet Father didn’t trust him to take out an abandoned factory of thugs. It wasn’t insulting enough to send Damian running back to Grandfather, but it was irritating. 

Admittedly, Father had been almost unconscious and Alfred had been relocating his shoulder, but Damian had still delivered the nerve strike with only a black eye to show for it. Shoulder in place, when Father had awakened, he’d dared to give Damian a lecture about acceptable risks! How ridiculous could one man be? Damian was the best fighter and he’d be smarter than the rest of them when he had the same amount of training. 

A poke to his arm distracted him, but he didn’t make a sound as he flung himself into a fighter’s crouch to assess his enemy. Black Bat wasn’t even looking at him, dismissing him as a threat as she watched the factory across the way. Damian was the best fighter of his brothers; Cass was not one of those. 

“What? I’m watching for cowards. You’re the one not where you’re supposed to be.” Damian said with full confidence, even though he wasn’t sure where Cass was supposed to be. 

“Oracle.” From anyone else, it would be a non sequitur, but it was Black Bat. He had to sort out what she meant, deciding that she was asking why she couldn’t raise Oracle on the comms, or anyone else. 

“EMP.” Damian rolled his eyes when he realized he’d have to explain. He really didn’t understand why Father put up with this broken thing, no matter how good she was in a fight. “Small bomb took out the electronics only, so you can’t contact Oracle or Father. 

She frowned and studied him for a moment. “Come.” 

“No, I have to stay where Father put me, until he learns I can be depended on and given tasks more befitting my abilities.” He crossed his arms and stood as straight as possible, a regal pose no matter what Tim said. 

Cass sighed and moved. Damian was up and over her shoulder before he realized it, air pushed from his lungs as she began to run, jostling him. 

“I am not amused.” He managed, but Cass gave no sign of having heard. “This is undignified, put me down!” 

Cass continued to ignore him as she jumped between two buildings, and Damian realized he could no longer see the hateful abandoned shoe factory. Anything that happened from here on out could be blamed on Cass, and Father might finally see how pointless it was to let her out without supervision. If Father was so concerned for Damian’s safety, he could make Cass his bodyguard. She’d make a good minion. 

Suddenly Damian was on his feet, adjusting to the well-lit area they found themselves in. They avoided areas like this, so it took Damian a moment to realize they were inside the power station, even with all the machines having ‘Danger High Voltage’ signs. Except the weird bomb looking thing, snuggly circling the base of a very prominent machine; that didn’t need a warning label. 

Black Bat was on the floor pulling back a panel she must have removed earlier. Damian knelt beside her to get a better look. 

“I take it you found a bomb you didn’t understand, and when you couldn’t contact anybody to talk you through dismantling it, you came for the smartest person you know.” It was a reasonable summation, and bought time for Damian to try and figure out the weird bomb before them. 

“All busy.” Cass muttered, flashlight shining over the wires even though it was bright enough in here. 

The black wires lead to a motherboard, so this wasn’t as simple as cutting the red wire. Cass was still and silent in a way even Father couldn’t match, and Damian suddenly missed the incessant chatter of Dick and Tim, even Oracle bossing them all around. 

“How did you find this?” Damian asked, hoping the answer would be relevant and not just chatter. 

“Factory gang had guards watching.” 

“The ones that let off the EMP? That explains why this is so complicated, it’s another EMP. The factory one was practice, this is meant to take out the electricity for all of Gotham. No lights, no security cameras, everybody will be free to act out their basest impulses. A crime wave, even if the normal people don’t panic and start looting.” 

“Stop it.” Cass said, waving at the panel, effectively shutting Damian up. 

Damian was learning about bombs and crime detecting, all sorts of things, but he was still learning. His instructions were very clear; in case of anything, especially something new, he was supposed to call for backup. 

“Why here?” Cass asked, looking at all the other machines they didn’t know the purpose of around the room. 

“Now you are asking the right questions.” Damian allowed, though he didn’t know the answer right off. The bomb would have been effective from outside the power plant, as walls didn’t stop an EMP. “This machine must be extra important. Might be a second bomb to take out this machine in case the EMP doesn’t work. They did make a tester bomb, so this is important to them.” 

Cass nodded, and pulled a knife out of her belt, reaching for the machine. 

“Wait!” Damian protested before he realized why. Cass halted, so he was able to imply she was stupid with his voice if not his words. “These machines are all dangerous. You’ll probably die horribly if you touch one.” 

“No touching, but you need to back off.” 

“Back off!” Damian was protesting with full awareness that he was in the right. “You dragged me away from my post, and Father will have something to say about that. I figured this out and warned you of the danger, so you don’t get to dismiss me like a servant.” 

Cass stopped cutting through the PVC pipe that wrapped the bomb around the base of the machine to look at Damian for a moment before turning back to it. “You’d make a good Alfred.” 

“I was conceived to rule this planet and you think it’s a compliment to call me a servant. I am the heir apparent to Ra’s Al Ghul League of Assassins; I have conquered the White Ghost.” Damian stopped in mid-rant, because Cass was ignoring him. She was so very good at that and Damian hated being ignored. She’d managed to cut out a small square of the PVC so he leaned in to have a better look. 

She met him with a frown and a hand on his shoulder. A small shove was ignored, so she shoved harder and added words. “Back off.” 

At his full height to where she laid on the ground, Damian tried to intimidate her as he snarled. “You may be Father’s favorite, but you do not dare to order me around.” 

“Father loves all the same.” Cass looked more confused than irritated, though Damian was irritated enough for both of them. Cass moved on to cutting through more of the pipe, having determined there was nothing explosive in the section she was working on. 

“Everyone has to fight for his favor. I have to demand and earn every scrap of responsibility or affection, beg even. You get an apartment in the city and never come in for training. We go to fundraising parties but you get to learn what he does at his day job.” 

“Fighting is easy for me, being human is hard. I must learn books before I can be more than a fighter. You are more, so Batman protects. 

“No part of me needs protection.” Damian rolled his eyes and regretted it, since that was a behavior he’d learned from Tim. 

“Virgin.” 

Damian sputtered before he found his protest. “Of course I’m a virgin, I’m not old enough for puberty yet. Father doesn’t care about that!” 

“Not sex. Virgin heart.” Cass clarified, sort of. 

“Do you mean innocent? I’m young, but I know more now than you ever will. Raised to be king, remember? I know what the world is like.” 

Cass stood, to place a gentle hand to his chest. “Head knows, but heart doesn’t. Wants love and pride, not jobs, even if have to do what you don’t want to get it.” 

“I don’t need approval.” Damian tried to declare, but his voice sounded weak in his own ears. 

“You are Father’s hope, that this,” Cass put her hand on her own chest, covering up part of the Bat symbol there, “has not hurt us. He thinks he failed as a father and you are his hope to get it right.” 

Cass’ words echoed through his mind, so Damian barely noticed he was picked up again and carried outside. On his feet again, he could only obey Cass’ parting word. 

“Stay.” 

He was born to be a king, and Mother had given him the chance to learn better by giving him to Father. What could Father possibly see as better than this? His children were amazing fighters and forces for good, so how could he have failed them? Lost in his own thoughts, Damian stayed, until Cass was there, holding the bomb that she’d freed from the base of the machine. 

“When you said back off, you meant don’t get caught in the blast if I mess up and set off the bomb. You care about me.” That wasn’t what he’d been thinking about, but it made sense. 

Cass smiled. “Bomb should be dead, but we need Father to stop the EMP.” 

“I’ll take the roofs, you carry it through the streets, we head back to the shoe factory.” 

Cass started jogging that way, steps much smoother than they had been when she carried him. She probably made sure he bounced so he wouldn’t talk so much while up there. Damian frowned at that, but got up to the roofs. Here he was able to watch for trouble, or even other members of his family. Because, yes, Cass was weird and broken, but she was one of his siblings. She’d probably make a good minion in his prank war with Jason, though she had to be wrong about all that other stuff. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Buy Me a Coffee?](https://ko-fi.com/W7W35853)


End file.
